Do you remember learning to write joined-up, or cursive, writing in school?

Perhaps you had a fountain pen that you were allowed to use once a week, to practice writing copy neatly from the blackboard?

This was the topic of conversation in our writing group this evening.

We were tasked with exploring our writer autobiographies, and half of the group wrote about being aged 8-10 and learning this method, with varying degrees of success. Leaky fountain pens, wonky writing that never looked as neat as your best friend, and rarely anything like the teacher’s handwriting. All our memories flooded back, including the rolling blackboards that were made up of half plain board, half lined board for cursive musings.

It makes me wonder what the students in today’s schools will remember in a few decades, about learning to write joined-up letters, particularly when everyone texts, and little marks are attributed to grammar and punctuation in GCSEs.